Denny Hamlin moved another rung on the all-time Cup wins list with his victory Sunday at Dover, but could he also be moving closer to that elusive series title?
It’s more than six months until the Cup title will be determined and NASCAR’s playoff format can be cruel to those with the most wins in a season, but Hamlin is certainly among the early favorites.
HIs victory Sunday was his third of the year and 54th of his career — tying him with Lee Petty for 12th on the all-time list.
Hamlin’s duel in the final laps against Kyle Larson can be viewed as matchup of two of the early title favorites (along with William Byron).
Hamlin was asked after the race if he felt Sunday’s finish with Larson was a good litmus test for such likely encounters later in the year with his friend.
“Listen, I know that I’m a championship-caliber driver,” Hamlin said. “I’ll just say it. I think there’s been worse drivers win a championship than me. I just feel that way just because of things that have worked out.
“It’s different. Find one driver saying that championships are the same as they were 10 years ago, it’s just not. I care about wins and winning every single week because in the end I absolutely would take 60-some wins and no championship over 20 and one. It’s just not even close.
“I just think it’s fun to be able to do it. When you can do it against someone that you really consider a big challenger in Kyle Larson, he’s a champion, not a challenger. I’m probably the challenger. I think it certainly helps your ego a little bit. Like I need that.”
Hamlin has made it to the Championship 4 four times but not since 2021. His four appearances trail Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick by one since 2014 when the playoff format changed.
But Hamlin is the winningest driver in Cup history without a series title.
Asked what defines a championship season and making those moments in the regular season, Hamlin said Sunday: “It’s very satisfying because I was really looking forward to Texas (two weeks ago). When Kyle Larson was dominating the first half. I knew what kind of car I was going to have in the second half. He had a wheel problem. Man, I can’t race him straight up.
“We’ve had a lot of late-race battles. So to get the better end of it certainly feels good on my end. I mean, he’s one of the best. The record proves it. The amount of wins he’s got since being over there, it speaks for itself. I mean, as old as I am, I’m just happy I can keep up at this.”
Hamlin also was asked how all his previous duels with Larson helped him Sunday.
“I just know that the pressure that it puts on me,” Hamlin said. “I know that he’s willing to take chances to reel me in. It’s why you see some of these Next Gen races come down to a pretty close finish.
“If you’re not willing to push it to the absolute edge, you’re not optimizing lap time. I know that when he’s chasing, he is pushing it to the edge. I am just trying not to screw up. I am not running to the car’s probably full potential because what would really look silly is me going in the corner and losing it, getting sideways, he gets an easy pass on me.
“It’s really, really hard as a leader to just say, This lap time is good, and if I can run this lap time, he’s not going to get around me.
“It certainly got tricky when we got around lap cars because I didn’t know where they were going to go. It’s hard. It really is hard. It affected my psyche more than it did anything. I just tried to stay calm.
“I’m interested to kind of look at the lap times. I feel like I was uber consistent every lap, even when we were in traffic. That’s kind of a test on me, is am I executing, am I doing the best job that I can to hold him off?
“He had the long run speed on me for most of the day. It just kind of worked out timing-wise where I would stretch it out, then he would reel me back in. I mean, it’s hard. It’s hard when you’re racing against a guy who’s willing to wreck to win.”
